Languages: 
WSU’s Department of Consumer Science in Food and Nutrition recently hosted a group of high school teachers from the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality region to help bolster the quality and standard of the curriculum of services subjects, which are consumer studies, hospitality studies, and tourism.
Nine grade 12 teachers, led by a Department of Basic Education subject advisor, Nompumelelo Zulu, visited the university’s College Street site on Monday 29 July to gain practical exposure to specific aspects of the services industry studies, mainly the wine component and table setting.
As part of the festivities, the teachers visited the university’s wine cellar, where they received a crash course on wine – its history, the complexities involved in wine tasting; the storing and fermentation of wine; the pouring technique of wine; the different types of glasses to be used to consume different wines, and possible career avenues within the wine industry.
“The purpose of the visit was to open up and deepen our collaboration with WSU seeing that we have a lot of grade 12 learners currently doing the services subjects. We thus wanted to expose our teachers to the various changes currently happening in the industry so that our curriculum, which is almost 12 years old, is up-to-date with the latest practical trends,” said Zulu.
She also said the main intent behind the visit was to equip the teachers with the necessary practical skills required to close the gap between the theory side of services subjects, and the practical side – an important convergence that will ensure enhanced quality and standards of the curriculum.
Preliminary Wine course lecturer, Veronica Dyokwe, who put the teachers through their paces about wine, said she jumped at the opportunity to assist the teachers in enhancing the curriculum because it would result in the overall improvement of the services industry through adequate quality of education.
“Through my engagement with the teachers, I found out that they don’t have adequate tools, resources, and media through which they can teach the learners about wines. They also lack the necessary knowledge to effectively impart substantive knowledge unto the learners so ongoing interventions such as this are crucial in enhancing our services industry through good grassroots education,” said Dyokwe.
From the wine cellar, the group ascended the stairs to the site’s Nkqubela restaurant, where Ph.D. candidate and hospitality lecturer, Lukhanyo Stemele, was waiting in anticipation to give a practical lesson in table-setting.
Stemele’s lesson was premised upon two table-setting techniques, namely, Table d’hote, a menu where multi-course meals with only a few choices are charged at a fixed total price, as well as à la carte, which is the practice of ordering individual dishes from a menu in a restaurant, as opposed to table d'hôte, where a set menu is offered.
He was at pains to insist on there being a platform established between the university and the basic education department through which teachers teaching services subjects can engage more in-depth and more thoroughly to share and exchange ideas, for the benefit of the student.
By Thando Cezula
